(“John” and “HaveAGo Ltd” are, fairly obviously, not the real names in this otherwise true story….)
John is the CEO of HaveAGo Ltd, a growing engineering company. John was known for his technical expertise and visionary ideas, but lacked in several aspects of emotional intelligence. This created a disastrous domino effect.
In rarely acknowledging the hard work and achievements of his staff, instead focussing on results, he often failed to appreciate the efforts of his team. Employees began to start feeling undervalued and unappreciated, and morale quickly declined.
This triggered a fall in happiness and in their motivation to perform. Staff began to feel disengaged and demotivated, affecting the overall performance of the company. Inevitably, some talented employees decide to leave.
John saw the poor results and recruitment costs increasing, and without a sufficiently strong EQ toolkit, he responded by getting frustrated, losing his temper, and offering all stick and no carrot. In effect, his communication went from ‘not great’ to ‘highly ineffective’. He was often blunt and insensitive in his feedback, leading to misunderstandings and conflicts within the team.
This lack of effective comms hindered collaboration and teamwork among staff, causing further breakdowns in the company's operations and an ebbing away of trust.
As the mutual trust between John and the teams diminished, they become reluctant to share their ideas and concerns openly. John's poor EQ prevents him from understanding his employees' perspectives and insights fully.
Consequently, he makes crucial decisions without considering all the necessary information, leading to sub-optimal choices for the company's future direction. The lack of trust led to a fear of sharing ideas, which hindered innovation and creativity within HaveAGo.
All of which created a company crisis and rapid decline.
John was highly skilled at many things, but suffered greatly due to his view that EQ is “just more new age nonsense”.
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I try to meet with, virtually or in person, lots of my business and coaching contacts, and I find this an effective way of keeping up to date with the latest relevant issues. It also helps to ‘ground’ me and encourage me to check in with my own work and approach. Along the way I have lots of discussions about leadership which inevitably entails wildly differing views and opinions.
Out of the proliferation of remote work during and after COVID, a new challenge for organisations has emerged: many important skills are not easily, or cannot be, nurtured through screens. In the traditional office environment, the subtle yet powerful process of learning osmotically plays a critical role. Leaders model behaviours, and employees, often subconsciously, absorb crucial skills such as adaptability, emotional intelligence, and intuitive decision-making. Even resilience can be enhanced through witnessing other people’s coping mechanisms.
Reflecting on what I feel makes a leader truly great, I realise that leadership is generally misunderstood. It should not be about rank or authority;